After anti-gentrification activists claimed responsibility for smashing the windows of a Neapolitan pizzeria chain on Commercial Drive last week, it appears protesters may have hit again by stealing a sign from an iconic Downtown Eastside butcher shop.
Entrepreneur Mark Brand took to Twitter and Instagram Wednesday night to vent about the theft of his Save On Meats storefront sign by “anarchists.”
“Yes I’m serious,” Brand said on Instagram below a picture of a man in a hoodie and glasses flashing a “peace” symbol by the sign. “They won’t stop until the capitalists leave the neighbourhood.”
“In all seriousness this sign is a real heart felt piece for the people who work with us,” he added. “It makes them really sad that people would steal it and disrespect their living.
“Therefore making me upset. Help me find it and spread the word fast. I’m serious.”
His high-profile Save On Meats butcher shop and deli sells sandwich tokens to customers at its Hastings Street location. The tokens are designed to be given to homeless people in the area who can then redeem them for food at the restaurant.
In the past activists have decried his expanding restaurant empire, saying it is pushing out more affordable eateries.
Last week, the Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria on Commercial Pizzeria had its windows smashed for the third time since opening last April.
In an Internet post the group responsible said, “For all too long now yuppies have been peacefully going about their gourmet dinners, buying up their lucky condos and flaunting their wealth by driving around in expensive cars. We are also inspired by the picketers of the new yuppie restaurant in the downtown east side called Pidgin. They have been giving yuppies a taste of the class war for weeks now.”
Nearby Save On Meats, Pidgin has been the target of community activists since opening its doors on Feb. 1 at 350 Abbott Street. Demonstrators have been picketing outside the restaurant to draw attention to what they say is gentrification and encroachment on the only remaining Vancouver community where low-income people feel accepted.
Jean Swanson of the poverty-advocacy group Carnegie Community Action Project said the business, and others like it, have no place in a neighbourhood where hundreds of residents are struggling, and in many cases failing, to keep a roof over their heads.
Rather, businesses like Sunrise Market, known as the cheapest grocery store in the city, are what the community needs, she said.
“Community members can get things that they need and afford, and they are treated with respect and not trailed by security guards, which happens a lot,” she said.
Efforts by some business owners, including those at Pidgin, to integrate into the community by shopping locally and contributing to food and social programs may be well-intentioned, but aren’t the solution, said Swanson.
“People here don’t want charity,” she said.
“If I were (the business owners), I would get it together and hold a news conference and call on (B.C. Housing Minister) Rich Coleman and (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper to build 5,000 units of self-contained social housing. I would ask they raise welfare rates. I would stop trying to make it seem that the situation in the Downtown Eastside can be solved by charity, and get on-board and start working for actual policy changes,” she said.
With a file from Darah Hansen
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